$5.6m Canadian project for Afghan women panned

KABUL (Pajhwok): A $5.6 million Canadian-funded project for boosting women's capacity to influence decision-making processes has come in for flak.

Launched by the Harper administration in 2013, Promoting Women's Political Participation in Afghanistan (PWPPA) was delivered between May 2014 and July 2016.

Too little of the money went to the women the programme was designed to support, according to an independent evaluation obtained by CBS News.

Aimed to encourage women to run for political office, the project was poorly designed and executed. It followed Canada's 2011 withdrawal of combat troops from Afghanistan

Global Affairs Canada, which contracted the project to the Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), hired an Italian consultant group to assess the project’s performance.

The $114,000 evaluation suggests the project said: "[T]he design of the project shows several weaknesses, including the lack of reflection on some crucial elements such as structural and long-term gender discrimination."

Compiled by Lattanzio and Seefar, the report referred to what it called a limited engagement of men in the project and a flawed implementation of the risks and mitigation strategies.

It also cited scant attention to the lack of political background and professional experience of the women. Most of the money went to the salaries and benefits of NDI workers and consultants delivering the project.

Security concerns in the country hurt the project between 2015 and 2016. NDI had to close offices temporarily in Kabul and Kandahar, and permanently in Kunduz.